“Something the matter?” Lauren asked, her voice a little rougher than it had been a few minutes ago.
“Yeah, there is. We could be making a baby right now, and we’re watching this.”
“That’s just the postgame horniness talking,” she said with as much nonchalance as she could summon.
“Oh, it’s talking. But not so loudly that I can’t hear myself think.”
“Mike, I need time.”
He looked at his watch, and then back at the screen. When approximately one minute had passed, he muted the show, then leaned in and kissed her neck.
“Mike,” she warned. His lips moved sensuously down her neck, dropping soft kisses. His beard tickled her collarbone and the shiver that resulted seemed to vibrate everywhere.
“You want to send me home?” He tongued her earlobe, then sucked it into his mouth.
She didn’t want to send him home—not when he was making love to the sensitive patch of skin beneath her ear. Her hands found their way onto his chest. He covered them with one of his and then his mouth covered hers, hot and determined. With a moan, she opened for him. Their tongues met and melded.
Mike: 1, self-control: 0.
“I need you,” he grunted, rolling on top of her. “We need each other.”
With his tongue in her mouth, it was hard to argue the point. Everything was heat and motion. She let herself be stoked like a campfire. Using his tongue and his very skilled hands, he built her into a raging, crackling flame. He tugged at her clothes, and she was too pliant to care as they were stripped away piece by piece, along with his.
Skin to skin, they kissed until her lips were swollen and her heart held nothing but willingness and desire. He whispered sweet words into her ear as his thick fingers slid down her body and into the juncture of her thighs. “So soft and ready for me,” he rasped against her lips.
She tugged his head closer and kissed him again. More action, please. Less talking.
“Lauren,” he said gently. He was straddling her, his cockhead teasing her clit. He was poised on his elbows above her body, dark eyes glittering. “Do you want me to find a condom?”
Did she?
She considered the question while he plundered her mouth with another knee-melting kiss. She was throbbing, her legs splayed open, her heart whirling. This, her body chanted. This. And more of this.
“Lo,” he pressed, his fingers stroking her mercilessly. “We can do this either way. But you have to tell me. Condom?”
Slowly, she shook her head.
He gave her the hottest smile she’d ever seen. Then he grabbed both her hands and pressed them against the bed. But when he pushed inside, his cocky grin slid right off his face. “Oh, fuck. Oh. You feel so fucking good.”
She couldn’t comment because she was too busy climaxing. Pleasure ripped through her body unexpectedly. She whimpered and shook.
“Lo,” he groaned, his hips driving forward. He took her mouth in another hungry kiss.
Pinned to the bed like a butterfly to a board, she let out a husky moan. This was the stuff of her fantasies. It was reckless and unexpected, and that made it even sweeter. Skin to skin, each new sensation was bright and overwhelming.
Above her, he made the soul-deep sounds of a man in love. She sensed a third presence in the room—there was Mike and Lauren, and also their union. Their closeness was back, gasping to life, shimmying between them.
It wasn’t long before she felt her joy building again. Breaking off their kiss, she jammed her face against his neck and cried out.
“Baby, yes,” he groaned. Then, with a shout, he planted himself one more time.
When his body relaxed against hers a moment later, nobody spoke. Theirs was a sweet silence, broken only by the sound of their mingled panting.
“See?” he croaked.
She did see. Even if she was still too blissed out to articulate it, she knew what he meant. What they’d just done wasn’t a spark of recklessness, but a force of nature. Like gravity. You could leap away from it, but it always pulled you back.
Their connection was still there, even if it had lain dormant a long time. Lauren had watched people search their whole lives for the One, and hers was currently on top of her. She wasn’t going to argue with him. Yet she might tease him. “You’re smug, aren’t you?”
“Only about a few things.”
“Which are . . . ?”
“I’m good at keeping a six ounce hunk of rubber out of the net. I have a smart kid. And I can make you into a needy puddle of a girl just by chewing on your neck.” She shivered without meaning to, and he chuckled. “See?” He dipped down to kiss her collarbone again, and he gave his hips one more slow pump. “Christ, Lo,” he added eventually. “That was probably good for triplets. Or twins, at least.”
Triplets? “Bite your tongue.”
He laughed, but she wasn’t ready to think about the consequences. Later, when she was alone, there would be time to panic about the future, and whether they could work things out for good.
He chuckled into her hair. “I’m all in. Literally.”
“I noticed that,” she muttered. They were still joined, and she gave him a little shove to get off her.
But he caught her hands and kissed her again. “You can’t get rid of me so easily.”
Given what they’d just done, he might turn out to be right.
“Don’t panic, honey,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
Was it? “You panicked once,” she reminded him. “That was fun.”
He kissed her nose. “Fair enough. But I learned my lesson.”
“Let me up, okay?”
With a sexy groan, he removed himself from her body, and she padded into the bathroom for a little cleanup. When she emerged a couple of minutes later, he was still lounging in her bed. “Come here,” he demanded.
She sat on the edge of the bed, trying to wrap her head around what had happened here tonight. The results were potentially life-changing.
Mike tugged her hand until she turned to face him. “I know you’re a thinker, Lo. It’s one of the things I love about you.” He pulled her down onto his spectacular body. “But don’t think yourself into a freak-out. Tonight you made me the happiest man in Florida. So get down here and kiss me.”
“I’m not freaking out,” she insisted. She curled one hand around his scruffy jaw and kissed him to prove it. “Don’t you have to go back to your own room? Is Elsa there alone?”
He grinned. “I should get back before she wakes in the morning. But she’s in a room that adjoins Hans and Justin’s.” He dropped a row of kisses along her jawline. “We have a few more hours. I can set my alarm for early in the morning . . .”